Chinese Version
10-11-2021，Monday，Cloudy and Sunny
The Boston Marathon, which had been postponed for a year, finally kicked off on Columbus Day, a legal holiday on the East Coast. In the morning, one of my friends text messaged me, “Are you going to watch the Marathon today?” I replied: “A friend from California is coming this morning. If she is interested in it, I’ll go with her.” TL, my neighbor in San Jose’s Almaden Valley, where our children grew up, said she was going to a lunch gathering in Cambridge at noon. As I planned to drop her off there, I checked and found that “Heartbreak Hill, the hardest part of Boston Marathon” is not far from Cambridge. I decided to watch the Marathon after I dropped her off.
The marathon is a running race with a distance of 26.2188 miles. The Boston Marathon is one of the most famous marathons in the world.
After dropping TL at Massachusetts Ave in Cambridge, while driving to Heartbreak Hill, I saw that the roads near the end of marathon were closed with a police officer standing at the intersection of some street. Because of the road closure, the GPS lost its navigation function, so I aimlessly circled around before I could find a parking spot on a side street of Blandford Street on the campus of Boston University. After getting out of the car and getting directions from a police officer standing on the roadside, I quickly walked to the marathon “1 Mile To Go” viewing points. Before entering the viewing points, a police officer checked my purse and tied a yellow ribbon on my purse to indicate it passed security inspection, then I went to viewing point 3 where the iron fences separating the runners and the audience were already crowded with people. While approaching the crowd, I looked back and saw two government big trucks parked horizontally behind me. No car could run over the two trucks to crash the audience standing by the iron fence, which made me feel very safe.
At about 12:30 noon, I squeezed into the crowd along the iron fence. On my left was a pretty petite girl with long hair and she shouted and cheered for all runners on the road: “You got it!”. On my right was a middle-aged woman who was holding her mobile phone recording the runners; on her right was a tall young mother with her daughter who was sitting in a children’s scroller. These were my left and right neighbors within a meter at “1 Mile To Go” of Boston Marathon. My left neighbor was very loud and my right neighbors were quiet.
While standing behind the iron fence and cluelessly watching endless runners passing in front of me, I turned my head to left and asked the pretty girl:”Where did the marathon start?” She immediately took out her cell phone and found a map to show me: “The marathon started from Hopkinton Center and it takes about an hour to drive from there to here.” As she sounded like very interested in marathon, I asked, “Do you want to run marathon someday?” She laughed: “I’m planning to start running, but not for the marathon.” Then I joined with her in cheering for all runners on the road. Because I did not know any runner, the things that caught my eyes were the blind runners holding hands with their guides, the disabled runners in their wheelchairs, and the runners coming to greet audience on the other side of the fences. Watching the unmasked crowded audience so close to each other shouting and waving their hands along the side of the street, I thought if Boston’s hospital didn’t become over occupied within a few days, this marathon would be one of the most effective ways to prove COVID-19 has been under control!
Suddenly, I heard the tall young mother on the right shouting: “Brian.” I turned my head to the right and saw a young man in a red shirt running toward us happily and shouting, “Amy.” After making a high five with Amy by clapping their hands together, Brian ran away. Then I heard the middle-aged woman on my right talking to Amy: “My daughter’s name is Amy too. She’s running today. I’m waiting here to take photos of her when she passes by.” I overheard her name is Shire.
After a while, Shire said excitedly: “Amy is here!” Then I heard she said: “Damned, I didn’t get Amy on my phone, a man just ran into the camera and completely blocked Amy.” As I was taking photos too, I looked at my phone and saw a recent photo of a girl in black shirt and short-pants, I showed this photo on my phone to Shire: “Is this your Amy?” Shire said happily as soon as she saw it: “Yes, can I take a picture of this photo?” While Shire was photoing the picture of Amy on my phone using her phone, I asked, “How old is your daughter? Where did you come from?” Shire said, “Amy is 31 years old and we come from Canada.” I asked again: “Could I write a story with Amy’s picture I just showed you?” Shire said: “Sure, do you have any questions for me? I’m leaving now.” I asked: “What does Amy do?” “Amy is a musician.” “What instrument does she play?” “She plays the violin.” After Shire left, I asked the tall Amy: “Is Brian your husband?” Amy smiled: “No, he’s a colleague.”
As I saw a lot of sweet scenes of hugging and kissing between the on-site runners and off-site audience over the iron fences, I wondered why these runners didn’t care about their marathon records and wanted to stop and interact with people off-site. After pondering over it for a while, my guess was that for marathon amateurs, their participation is a proud and valuable opportunity that they want to share with family and friends. With this fresh thought, I immediately text messaged my daughter who was in Baltimore about the mother and daughter of Shire and Amy and added at the end: “If you have a new passion at the age of 31, I will support you, Shire is my role model! ”
After Shire left, a girl came to stand beside me and I asked: “Do you know any runner?” She said, “Yes, my mommy’s friend is running today and she came from Maryland. I was responsible for taking photos of her for my mommy.” I asked: “Did you come from Maryland to take photo for her?” She said: “No, I am a student in Boston University.” “What is your major?” “I study special education.” I asked curiously: “How do you know when your mother’s friend will pass by here?” She said: “My mommy told me her friend’s marathon number. I am using an app tracking her marathon number. She will come here in a few minutes. She is 61 years old.”
During the 26.2-mile marathon, at the viewing point of “1 Mile To Go”, while chatting with my left and right neighbors within 1 meter and watching the interaction between runners on the road and the audience outside the iron fences, I felt a connection with the marathon, as I was deeply touched by the bonding with family and friends at the scene of the Boston Marathon.
Little Episodes
1. At 12:46 PM 10-11-2021， Amy, Brian’s colleague, was shouting：“Brian。” （The little girl in white cloth is Amy’ daughter, next to the little girl is Shire’s hand holding her cell phone recording.）
The street side crowded with unmasked audience and the road has all kinds of runners. Brian who in red shirt was running happily and a runner on the wheelchair.
2. At 12:53 PM 10-11-2021， Amy from Canada was running happily。
Shire， Amy’s mother was taking photos. The yellow ribbon on her shoulder bag indicates her bag passed security inspection.
3. At 1:57 PM, 10-11-2021，a blind runner holding hands with his guide.
At 3:05 PM, 11-11-2021，a pair of lovers hugging each other over the iron fences.
After hugging her lover on one side of the street, the female runner ran to hug a middle-aged woman on another side of the street. In addition, a runner was lying on the ground due to her cramping leg.
4. A group of officers facing the “1 Mile To Go” sign.
5. While chatting about my experience of watching Marathon the first time in Boston, the friend told me：“The incline of Heartbreak Hill is very challenge, it is very hard to break the world record for the Boston Marathon. Some professional runners don’t attend the Boston Marathon now.” I asked：“Where is the place to break world record easily？” “Berlin in Germany。”